The present invention relates to a conveying system of the type which conveys a succession of items which are initially in engagement with one another and which separates the items from one another during the course of conveyance.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,948 discloses a conveying system provided with an apparatus for separating items which are moved in engagement with each other by an input conveyor and are transferred onto an output conveyor, the apparatus including at least one periodically operating transfer member whose operation is synchronized with the output conveyor, the transfer member gripping an incoming item during each operating cycle and transferring it to the output conveyor whose speed is greater than that of the input conveyor, the paths of the two conveyors being at least approximately in one plane. The system is characterized in that these paths form a slight angle .alpha. with one another or are parallel to one another and the transfer member, which is designed as a pusher, moves along a closed curve path, arranged in a plane which is perpendicular to a plane containing the axis of the path of the input conveyor so that the items are transferred from the path of the input conveyor to the path of the output conveyor.
According to one embodiment of the system disclosed in this patent, the pusher has the form of a plate which has two narrow sides intersecting one another at an at least approximately right angle, the corner formed thereby moving, during each operating cycle, along an approximately elliptically curved path. One narrow side of the pusher serves to transfer an item from the end of the input conveyor to the laterally offset beginning of the output conveyor. The second narrow side, which is approximately perpendicular to the first narrow side, serves the purpose of retaining the following item and synchronizing it with the output conveyor so that it can be properly transferred thereto. A lateral guide disposed opposite the pushers is also provided in order to laterally support the item following the one then being transferred. This lateral guide must also be driven and this leads to a complicated structure of the drive members.